February
Comments

ANON
Feb 26th, 2016 @ 07:22 PM

A drama
teacher who raped a student when she was about seven years old has
been jailed for 10 years.

Kevin Carroll
(56) raped the girl in an Offaly school when he held her back after
drama class nearly 20 years ago. The victim gave evidence that
after the incident a woman at the school told her not to upset her
mother by telling her about the rape.

Carroll of
Hawthorne Drive, Birr in Offaly had pleaded not guilty at the
Central Criminal Court to rape and anal rape at the Offaly school
on a date between 1996 and 1998 when the girl was between six and
eight. He was convicted on both counts.

On Friday, Ms
Justice Margaret Heneghan noted that Carroll had offered no
mitigation and still rejected the verdict of the jury.

She said the
jury had found his victim to be “a credible and reliable witness”
and she commended the woman’s “strength and great dignity” in
reading out her emotional victim impact report.

Judge Heneghan
said any sentence must take into account the “revulsion of society
at such crimes”. She took into account that the victim was a
defenceless child at the time and Carroll held a position of
authority over her.

She imposed a
ten years sentence and ordered Carroll to undergo two year
post-release supervision. She also ordered he be registered as a
sex offender.

The woman began
her victim impact statement by quoting the poem The Forge by Seamus
Heaney.

“All I know is
a door into the dark,” she told the court.

She said she
felt like she “was given a life sentence at the age of
six”.She felt
“humiliated and degraded” throughout the trial process which she
found “exceptionally difficult.”

She said she
had trouble with State exams because they were held in halls
similar to the one she was raped in. She also had to give up
certain sports because they took place in halls.

She concluded
that the rape had not destroyed her and she was slowly learning to
cope with the help of therapy.

The court heard
earlier this week that Carroll is to launch an appeal against his
conviction because a juror was allegedly “smiling and winking” at
gardaí during his trial.

Counsel for the
DPP, Justin Dillon SC, said the offence was at the higher end of
the scale of seriousness because of the age of the victim,
Carroll’s position of trust and the injuries he caused
her.

Mr Dillon told
the court that Carroll taught a drama class in the school but was
not officially a teacher there.

ANON
Feb 26th, 2016 @ 11:06 AM

1/2...Sisters ask families
to pool foster care info..

Two sisters of
a woman placed in a foster care home at the centre of serious abuse
allegations have urged affected families to contact them to pool
information on the case.

Bridget and
Margaret, whose second names have not been released to protect the
identity of their sister, made the call after criticising officials
for not keeping them informed a claim the HSE last night rejected,
saying families have been offered support.

Speaking on RTÉ
radio, the women, from the south-east, said their sister was given
respite placements at the home on three occasions, in 1983, 1987,
and 1989, when she was aged 12, 16, and 18. She has limited speech
and has the mental capacity of a two-year-old.

The sisters
said they do not know if she suffered any abuse at the
home.

They said they
grew concerned during one of the placements when the foster family
left her alone outside after cancelling the placement.

“I never met
them [the foster family] but I know that on one occasion they rang
my parents and said they didn’t want her any more, to come and get
her.

My parents
found her there at the end of the road with her bag,” said
Bridget.

“They just said
they didn’t want her any more. When the parents arrived she was
just there at the end of the drive, no social worker
contacted.

“She was very
distressed [after the placements], she was crying and later on
became very anxious. We just thought it was because she’d been
separated from us. We didn’t realise what we know now [the abuse
claims].”

ANON
Feb 26th, 2016 @ 11:03 AM

2/2...Margaret, said other
than a general apology letter from the HSE, and the gardaí calling
18 months ago due to a “minor” complaint about the home, they have
been given no information about wider investigations of the
facility.

The HSE insists
it has offered all affected families support, and continues to do
so.Margaret said
as a result of their belief that they have not been supported, both
sisters are now calling on affected families to contact them
through the Liveline programme in order to pool their experiences
and information about the home.

Bridget said:
“It’s about support, really.

We wonder was
my sister in the same situation [as ‘Grace’, who is alleged to have
suffered years of abuse at the home].

We hope she
wasn’t but we don’t know. If other families want to get in contact
and sit down and talk about it, share any information they want to
deal with, that’s what we want.”

Meanwhile, the
Department of Health has said Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who
was health minister when ‘Grace’ was meant to be removed from the
home in 1996, was not involved in the decision to allow her
placement to continue.

As revealed by
the Irish Examiner, Mr Noonan was lobbied by the foster father at
the time, with the department subsequently contacting the then
South Eastern Health Board to find out about the case.

It has yet to
be clarified what information was sought.

In a statement,
the department said Mr Noonan was not involved in the U-turn on
removing ‘Grace’ and that he “never sought to direct or influence
the decision”.

ANON
Feb 24th, 2016 @ 11:47 AM

Church seeks
'lessons' from Bishop Peter Ball abuse review…

A review is to
examine who in the Church of England knew about sexual abuse
carried out by the former Bishop of Lewes and
Gloucester.

Peter Ball, 84,
was jailed in October for offences against 18 teenagers and young
men in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

The Old Bailey
heard a member of the Royal Family and other establishment figures
backed Ball when he tried to avoid sex abuse charges in the
1990s.

The Archbishop
of Canterbury said he hoped the church would learn
lessons.

The review
panel will be chaired by Dame Moira Gibb, a former chief executive
of Camden Council in central London.

Dame Moira
chaired a serious case review into Southbank International School
in London, where 54 pupils were abused by William Vahey between
2009 and 2013.

Her report,
published in January, found the school's safeguarding policies had
failed and teachers did not report their concerns.

The review of
the Ball case will consider what information was available to the
Church of England, who had it and when.

It will also
consider whether the Church's response complied with CofE policy
and legislation and statutory policy and legislation.

"It is a matter
of deep shame and regret that a bishop in the Church of England
committed these offences," said Archbishop Justin
Welby.

"There are no
excuses whatsoever for what took place and the systematic abuse of
trust perpetrated by Peter Ball over decades.

"I hope the
review will provide the Church as a whole with an opportunity to
learn lessons which will improve our safeguarding practice and
policy."

The review is
expected to be published within a year.

Ball was Bishop
of Lewes between 1977 and 1992 and Bishop of Gloucester from 1992
until his resignation the following year.

He was
cautioned for one act of gross indecency in 1993 against
16-year-old trainee monk Neil Todd, but was allowed to work in
churches until 2010.

The Archbishop
of Canterbury in 1993, George Carey - now Lord Carey said after
Ball was sentenced he greatly regretted that during his tenure the
church "dealt inadequately with Peter Ball's victims and gave too
much credence to his protestations".

ANON
Feb 24th, 2016 @ 11:44 AM

!/2....'Teenager at centre
of 12-man sex ring', court hears the streets of a red light
district in Birmingham as part of a child prostitution ring
involving 12 men,

The 14-year-old
was exposed to sex, drugs and violence when the offences allegedly
began in 2009, while he was in the care of social
services.

Prosecutor
Rosina Cottage QC told the court, sitting at Leamington Spa, what
happened led the boy into a "chaotic lifestyle".

She described
him as a vulnerable youngster from a troubled background who had
absconded from a care home in the East Midlands for a number of
days.

Ms Cottage said
the boy was alleged to have been sold "like goods" in the Kent
Street area of Birmingham, and described in interviews with police
"waiting on the street (with one of the defendants) for men, for
business, for money for drugs".

Offences the
men face include arranging and facilitating child prostitution,
rape and other multiple serious sexual assaults.

Ms Cottage said
the alleged offences against the boy were not fully investigated by
West Midlands Police when first reported in 2009-10, something she
described as "regrettable".

The trial,
which is set to last 12 weeks, follows a reopening of the inquiry
in 2012 when the claimant, now in his early 20s, was able to alert
police to the whereabouts of some of those allegedly
involved.

One defendant,
Ronald Potter, 78, of Tippers Lane, Fillongley in Coventry, a
former special constable with Warwickshire Police, is also accused
of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy between November 2001
and June 2002.

ANON
Feb 24th, 2016 @ 11:39 AM

2/2…The
Defendants:

:: Stephen
Kelly, Elm Road, Birmingham

:: Peter
Joynes, Canberra Way, Birmingham

:: Darren
Clegg, Hillside Drive, Great Barr, Birmingham

:: Peter Lowe,
Salisbury Close, Birmingham

:: Ronald
Potter, Tippers Lane, Fillongley, Coventry

:: Ian
Prestleton, High Hadden Road, Sandwell

:: Alan Priest,
Bristnall Hall Lane, Oldbury

:: Ashley
Sherrington, Dawlish Drive, Stoke-on-Trent

:: Michael
Godbold, Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, west London

:: Tahir
Hussain, St Josephs Road, Birmingham

:: Kevin Tudor,
HMP Watton

:: Robert
Bailey, Watt Road, Erdington

ANON
Feb 23rd, 2016 @ 01:12 PM

1/2...Foster
care correspondence: Papers suggest more yet to come…

Since early
February, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has sidestepped questions
over whether he had any role in the decision 20 years ago to allow
a woman with significant intellectual disabilities to remain at an
abusive foster home.

Mr Noonan and
Taoiseach Enda Kenny have both told the Irish Examiner at press
conferences in recent days that all Department of Health
information about what happened in 1996 which led to the woman
known as ‘Grace’ being left at the home has been made
public.

However,
correspondence to and from the then health minister seen by this
newspaper show this is not the full story, with the developing
situation now likely to form a central part of the promised State
investigation into the tragic case.

On April 2,
1996, on foot of concerns over the treatment of a vulnerable child
at the foster home, a three-person south-eastern health board panel
decided to remove Grace from the facility.

An appeal was
lodged by the foster family in May of that year, but was rejected
by two independent experts.

Under normal
circumstances, that should have been the end of the case, with the
decision to remove Grace and place her in alternative State care
having been made and subsequently supported by an independent
review.

However, from
early August, a chain of events came into play which have led to
fresh questions over why the vulnerable woman was instead left at
the home until 2009 allegedly suffering severe abuse in the
process.

Documents seen
by the Irish Examiner show that, on August 9, 1996, the father of
the foster home family sent a two-page hand-written letter directly
to Mr Noonan urging him to intervene in the removal of Grace which
the foster father claimed was made by “some minion” and “to satisfy
someone’s ego”.

The foster
father claimed his family had just been informed their appeal to
keep Grace in their control rejected three months earlier had
failed and that, “in the best interests of Grace”, he urged Mr
Noonan to intervene.

ANON
Feb 23rd, 2016 @ 01:09 PM

2/2...“For
some reason the health board are prepared to deny Grace comfort and
happiness all I suspect because some minion has said let’s move
her.

Hope you can
decide in our favour,” he wrote.

Six days later,
on August 12, senior Department of Health mental health services
official Caroline Hurley wrote to south-eastern health board
programme manager Martin Hynes noting “representations have been
received” and requesting a case report.

On September 6,
Mr Noonan’s private secretary wrote back to the foster father
confirming the child was removed under the terms of the 1991 Child
Care Act.

The letter
confirmed that Mr Noonan “understood” the health board had
concluded that it was in Grace’s best interests that she be removed
from the home.

However, the
letter goes on to state that the health board, at the request of
the foster father, delayed Grace’s removal.

After being
contacted by the Department child care policy unit official Malachy
Quinn on September 11, again seeking a report on the case, on
September 25 health board programme manager Mr Hynes wrote back,
saying “the case is currently under consideration” by the health
board and the principal of a local national school who had also
contacted the health board for unknown reasons.

Dermot Ryan,
wrote to this principal confirming “the minister has made
enquiries” and that the case was “currently under consideration”
seven months after the initial decision to remove her adding: “the
board have [sic] assured the Minister your views will be taken into
account.”

At the same
time, a note of correspondence between Department officials and the
health board showed Grace’s removal had been stalled “since
September 25” the date health board programme manager Mr Hynes
wrote to the Department saying the previously decided case was now
“currently under consideration”.

It is unclear
at this stage why Grace was left at the home despite earlier
rulings.However, what
is clear is that after Mr Noonan sought further details in response
to direct foster family representations, the removal was
stopped.

All that can be
said at this stage is that Mr Noonan’s sudden interest dovetails
remarkably with an apparent removal U-turn.

Through either
accident or design the political intervention led to the vulnerable
woman being left in a severely abusive home for 13 more
years.

ANON
Feb 22nd, 2016 @ 12:44 PM

1/2Austin
Currie drawn into case of girl at ‘foster’ home…

Intellectually
disabled young adult left at house 13 years after sex abuse
concerns raised

Austin Currie:
“My memory is pretty good, but this was 20 years ago. I have no
recollection of that case.”

Former minister
for children Austin Currie says he passed representations from a
“foster” family in the southeast to department
officials.

Two
representations were made to the Department of Health in late 1996
on behalf of a family appealing a decision by the then South
Eastern Health Board to remove a young adult with intellectual
disabilities from their care.

One
representation was from the family and another on their behalf by a
public servant familiar with the family.

A decision was
made in September 1996 to remove the young woman known as Grace
(then 1
amid concerns about serious sex abuse at the home. Grace had been
with the family since 1989.

The original
decision to remove Grace was countermanded at a meeting of three
health board officials in October 1996 and Grace was left in the
home until 2009.

The reason she
was left in the home, despite serious concerns, is
unknown.

No minutes
remain of the October 1996 meeting. It is understood at least one
of the three people at that meeting has since died.

The “foster
mother” who ran the home a “holiday home” for respite and not a
registered foster home has said she was told by a social worker,
now deceased, that as Grace had turned 18 in 1996, she was no
longer under their care so the family could “keep” her.

ANON
Feb 22nd, 2016 @ 12:42 PM

2/2...Michael Noonan,
health minister at the time, has said any representations made to
the department were passed on to Mr Currie as the appropriate
minister.

Mr Currie,
junior minister in the Department of Health from December 1994 to
June 1997, said: “My memory is pretty good, but this was 20 years
ago. I have no recollection of that case. If a representation was
made I would have passed that on to the appropriate officials in
the department.”

He also
disputed reports a family of a victim of alleged abuse at the
“foster” home had come to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in 1997 with
former Fine Gael councillor and then chairman of the South Eastern
Health Board, Garret O’Halloran.

Mr O’Halloran
also disputed reports he had tried to discuss abuse allegations at
the “foster” home with Mr Noonan at the 1997 Ard Fheis. “I have no
knowledge of that foster home abuse case,” he said.

But he said Mr
Noonan had “sprinted” away from him at the Ard Fheis.

He had brought
a family, whose daughter had been abused in the 1980s by Fr Jim
Grennan, parish priest in Monageer in Ferns, to Dublin to meet Mr
Noonan.

Mr Currie said
he met the family with Mr O’Halloran late on the Saturday at the
Ard Fheis. “I said I would inquire into their allegations when I
got back to the department on Monday.The next thing
I heard in the press I had promised an inquiry. I had not. I know I
brought that family’s concerns to the officials in the
department.”

The family’s
allegations about Fr Grennan were confirmed in the 2005 Ferns
report.

ANON
Feb 22nd, 2016 @ 12:40 PM

1/2Survivors
of abuse by sports coach call for accountability…

Men are
‘amazed’ to learn of admission to gardaí in 1987 after meeting was
arranged

Survivors of
sexual abuse by sports coach Bill Kenneally have questioned how he
could have been allowed remain unaccountable for his abuse for
almost 30 years after gardaí were alerted to his predatory
behaviour.

Accountant
Kenneally (65) of Laragh, Summerville Avenue, Waterford was jailed
for 14 years and two months on Friday for the abuse of 10 boys
between January 1984 and December 1987 but details emerged at his
hearing that gardaí were alerted to his abuse as far back as 1987
(see panel).

Survivors Jason
Clancy and Colin Power said they were “amazed” to learn that when
the family of another abuse victim, identified as W, went to gardaí
in 1987, a meeting was arranged between senior officers and
Kenneally, through his uncle, former Fianna Fáil TD, the late Billy
Kenneally.

Mr Clancy said:
“I know back in 1987 if I was Bill Kenneally’s age, if there was a
complaint made against me, I don’t think they would be going to
ring my uncle, I think they’d be coming straight to me but that is
the way the Kenneallys were treated back in the day.

“It should have
been followed through.

All the gardaí
had to do at the time was follow Bill Kenneally one night and if
they were out by his favourite spot, which was the New Ross lay-by,
they would have got him red-handed any time they wanted
to.”

Mr Power said
it was important to differentiate between the more recent garda
investigation, which led to Kenneally’s conviction, and what
happened with gardaí back in 1987 but in his view what happened
back in 1987 was “negligent”.

ANON
Feb 22nd, 2016 @ 12:37 PM

2/2...“In
1987, the guards were approached about this guy and although there
wasn’t a formal complaint, in my book it was negligent of them not
to do something.

Do we believe
he just stopped like that? We have no evidence to the contrary
[but] not for one second do I believe he stopped.”

Both Mr Clancy
and Mr Power, along with fellow survivors Kevin Keating and Barry
Murphy, who also waived their right to anonymity, said they wanted
accountability but were still unclear what route they were going to
pursue to try and establish the full facts of what happened in
1987.

Mr Clancy said
Kenneally had admitted to gardaí abusing 20 boys and some 54 boys
had made statements to gardaí as part of the current investigation
but it was unclear how Kenneally had been able to go undetected for
so long when gardaí knew about his abuse in 1987.

1987: Meeting
with gardaí but no formal complaintSports coach
Bill Kenneally, who warned his victims that no one would believe
them

if they
reported him as he was a member of the powerful Kenneally Fianna
Fáil dynasty in Waterford city, admitted to gardaí as far back as
1987 that he was engaging in sexual abuse.

During
Kenneally’s two-day sentencing hearing, Det Garda Maureen Neary
told how Kenneally revealed during a search of his house in
December 2012 that he had met gardaí in 1987 after the family of
another boy , W, went to gardaí, concerned he may have abused their
son.

Defence counsel
Michael Counihan SC said a meeting was arranged through Kenneally’s
uncle (former Fianna Fáil TD and Mayor of Waterford the late Billy
Kenneally) and he went to Waterford Garda station on December
30th,

1987, where he
met with two senior officers.

Mr Counihan
said during a 90-minute meeting with Supt Sean Cashman and Insp PJ
Hayes, Kenneally made a verbal admission about his activity with
the boy (W) but the boy’s family opted not to make a formal
complaint for personal reasons.

ANON
Feb 20th, 2016 @ 04:14 PM

1/2…Michael
Noonan urged to give statement on Waterford abuse
claims…

Finance
Minister Michael Noonan must give a full and frank statement on his
alleged “inept” handling of abuse allegations in a Waterford home
20 years ago or face being hauled before a Dáil committee to
publicly explain what happened.

Sinn Féin’s
Mary Lou McDonald made the claim as she said Mr Noonan’s response
to a series of questions over the case falls far short of what is
required.

As reported by
the Irish Examiner, Mr Noonan repeatedly refused to fully respond
to allegations he failed to act on concerns of child abuse at a
Waterford foster care home when he was informed of the situation
two decades ago.

The case has
subsequently led to a State commission of investigation announced
last month, amid claims of sexual abuse and a cover-up by the
health service.

In recent days,
it emerged the then South Eastern Health Board chairman, Garry
O’Halloran, who was also a Fine Gael councillor at the time,
learned of the case in 1997.

After meeting
with relatives of alleged victims, he organised a meeting with Mr
Noonan at the party’s ard fheis in Dublin that year.

Mr O’Halloran
claims Mr Noonan, who was the health minister at the time, “did a
runner” when he saw him, leaving then junior health minister Austin
Currie to meet the individuals.

While Mr
O’Halloran says he was raising serious abuse allegations which, two
decades later, have caused a national scandal no action was taken,
leading the former councillor to resign from the party.

ANON
Feb 20th, 2016 @ 04:10 PM

2/2...Despite the issues
being raised with Fine Gael, the Department of Finance, and Mr
Noonan repeatedly in recent days, the finance minister would only
say on Thursday that he rejected the version of events; that the
case still needs to be examined fully; and that he was not going to
provide further details to satisfy public “curiosity”.

Speaking to
reporters at a Sinn Féin election event yesterday, Ms McDonald said
questions over what exactly happened must be answered.

“I think it is
very troubling,” said Ms McDonald. “I am familiar with the
circumstances in respect of Waterford and a number of people who
have had a very traumatic experience and who were let down by the
State and who were let down by government.

“I do think
that Michael Noonan needs to come out and make a full statement on
the matter, to set out exactly what happened, the timeline, and who
was involved.

“It’s very
important that Michael Noonan puts all those matters on the
record.

“I note that
even former colleagues of his are very concerned and very angry at
what they regard to have been the disregard, the mishandling, the
indifference of Michael Noonan to the issue of the
time.”

The Public
Accounts Committee, of which Ms McDonald is a member, repeatedly
highlighted the case last year.

On whether the
committee should ask Mr Noonan or Mr Currie to appear and give
their accounts on the matter, Ms McDonald said this must now be
considered.

“Were it not
for PAC, the issues would not have come to light,” said Ms
McDonald.

“I think it is
something in the next Dáil that has to be pursued.

It is always
preferable that Michael Noonan would come forward on his own
initiative.

I think he
should do so today.”

ANON
Feb 20th, 2016 @ 04:07 PM

1/2...Child
abuser to ‘serve’ his sentence at home…

The sexual
abuser of a child is to have his home turned into his prison cell
for the next five years for a crime he committed 35 years
ago.

Eugene
O’Sullivan, aged 59, of Dun Orga, Dunmanway, Co Cork, was given a
five-year prison sentence yesterday which, in effect, he will serve
in his own home.

Judge McDonagh
yesterday said it was with reluctance that he was suspending the
five-year sentence but was doing so on the man’s undertaking to
stay within the curtilage of his home for the next five
years.

“I will suspend
it on his entering a bond to have no contact of any nature with the
injured party or her family, that he remain within the curtilage of
his dwelling for the period of five years,” the judge said, adding
O’Sullivan could leave his home for all medical appointments and
hospital treatment.

“If it crosses
his mind to attend church, chapel, or meeting house he would be
permitted to do so,” Judge McDonagh said.

“These terms
are to replace his home for a prison cell. Any deviation should
immediately be reported to the court and I will impose the prison
sentence.”

The judge said
the victim impact statement, which the complainant did not want to
have read in public, was the most articulate, eloquent and moving
he had even seen outlining how crimes of this nature affected
innocent children through their childhood and into adult
life.

ANON
Feb 20th, 2016 @ 04:04 PM

2/2...The
accused was remanded in custody a fortnight ago following his pleas
of guilty to indecently assaulting a girl in West Cork when she was
six years old and he was 25. O’Sullivan’s name will also go on the
sex offenders register.

Sergeant Aidan
Moynihan said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the incident
assault occurred on an afternoon in the early 1980s.

The girl asked
O’Sullivan to get something for her. He said he would but produced
his penis and told her to put it in her mouth first and the child
did so.

It was not
until the injured party was 19 that she felt she could tell an aunt
and it was some further time before she told her
mother.

Sgt Moynihan
said she was in counselling from 1995 to 2012, when she went to her
local garda station and made a complaint of indecent
assault.

The injured
party said she did not want any of the parties identified and did
not want the accused to be jailed.

ANON
Feb 19th, 2016 @ 02:17 PM

Finance
Minister Michael Noonan has strongly rejected claims that he “did a
runner” from families of sex abuse victims who tried to speak to
him about abuse allegations when he was minister for
health.

Mr Noonan
yesterday dismissed a claim from a former Fine Gael councillor and
chairman of the South East Health Board Garry O’Halloran that the
minister “ran” from him as he tried to discuss the abuse
allegations at a foster home in the South-East.

The veteran
Fine Gael minister is under fire amid the ongoing controversy about
the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations at a foster home in Co
Waterford by health officials as far back as 1995.

Recent reports
in the Irish Examiner have led to the establishment of a Commission
of Investigation into the foster home at which a young
intellectually disabled woman, referred to as Grace, was allegedly
raped and subjected to horrific sexual abuse.

“I understand
Cllr O’Halloran, whom I don’t know I mean I’m sure I met him when I
was minister because I met a lot of councillors I’m not sure
whether he was Waterford or Wexford but he was on in the South-East
anyway and I reject his versions of events,” Mr Noonan told the
Irish Examiner yesterday.

Mr Noonan
confirmed he received representations from the foster father in
1996 when health minister around the time a decision to remove
Grace from the home was overturned.

“We were told
that the young woman in question, or young child in question, had
been removed from the foster home,” he said.

“Some weeks
later, it transpired that the South Eastern Health Board officials,
who had made the decision, had reversed the decision for some
reason.”

Mr Noonan said
the matter was ultimately passed on to his junior minister, Austin
Currie, to deal with.

ANON
Feb 19th, 2016 @ 02:13 PM

2/2...“Austin Currie was
the junior minister with responsibility to children at the
Department of Health at that time and we referred it on to him,” he
said.

Mr Noonan also
sought to cast doubt on the veracity of the abuse allegations. This
is despite the Government deciding to establish a Commission of
Inquiry into the goings on at the foster home, and the HSE
apologising to the abuse victims.

He said: “As I
understand it, what we have, at present, is a series of allegations
that need to be inquired into. I understand there’s no proof on
either side.

I can’t be
responsible for third-parties who make allegations about me which I
refute.”

Mr O’Halloran
said that, at the 1997 Fine Gael ard fheis, Mr Noonan had arranged
to meet him and some abuse victims. He has said he resigned from
Fine Gael because of Mr Noonan’s actions.

“We arrived, he
kept us waiting for hours,” said Mr Halloran. “Eventually I spotted
him leaving the stage and heading for a door about 40m away, I was
about 60m away and started to follow him in the direction of the
door.

“He spotted me
and ran. I then ran but he got to the door and when I arrived I was
met with a cloud of black smoke as his Garda driver sped
away.”

Reacting to Mr
Noonan’s comments last night, Mr O’Halloran said he was shocked at
“how bare-faced” the minister was in his denials.

“How can he
deny it? Surely he can’t be so bare- faced? What about Phil Hogan,
who was there telling me it would all be alright?” Mr O’Halloran
said.

“Also he sought
to deny he knew me. What about the time in 1991 when I ran for the
Seanad when he canvassed with me and had his son drive me
around.”

After an
initial query about Mr O’Halloran’s allegations on Monday, a Fine
Gael spokesperson responded on Tuesday by referencing an interview
the finance minister conducted with RTÉ before the claims were
made, adding that “no additional information” is
available

ANON
Feb 19th, 2016 @ 02:08 PM

A former
national basketball coach has been jailed to 14 years and two
months in prison for abusing 10 boys in the 1980s.

Bill Kenneally
was sentenced at Waterford Circuit Court this morning

Judge Eugene
O'Kelly said the 10 counts were a representative sample of more
than 70 charges before the court.

The offenses
occurred over a four year period in the mid 1980s.

The judge said
Kenneally came from a relatively privileged background and worked
as an accountant and that he had an appetite of sexual
gratification for young boys.

The offenses
happened in Kenneally's home, without the knowledge of his parents,
or in his car or at various other locations.

The court heard
the gardaí were aware of an informal complaint in 1987 but that the
current prosecution comes from victims going to the gardaí in
2012.

Judge O'Kelly
said Kenneally had taken on the guise of being a coach or a mentor,
he groomed them for the sexual exploitation of them for months and
years and he had money at a time when many were
struggling.

He spent his
money on cars which had an impression on the young
boys.

He gave them
money, initially appearing as a gift, but then as a debt which they
had to work off with alcohol and images of
pornography.

One of the
features of many predatory pedophiles is the pattern the abuse was
very similar for each of the boys.

Judge then
highlighted some of the abuse, saying each victim had suffered
devastating psychological consequences, and the impact statements
make harrowing reading.

He said the
victims were powerless to prevent the abuse, with some suffering
from alcohol dependency and depression and one contemplating
suicide.

Family life has
suffered, and one of the boys was abused on the very morning he was
to sit his Inter Cert Leaving Cert English
examination.

“You have all
been robbed of the innocence of your childhood said.

ANON
Feb 19th, 2016 @ 02:05 PM

2/2...The
judge said there are very strict sentencing guidelines and that the
law for sentencing applies to the time offense occurred, when the
maximum sentence was two years in prison, pre-1991.

Since then the
law has been changed to 14 years maximum, reflecting contemporary
society's repugnance to the abuse.

He said the
aggravating factors included the nature of the abuse, the effect on
the victims, the intensity of the abuse and scale of the gravity,
which is on the upper end of the scale of the assault.

He said Mr
Kenneally gained the trust of the boys as a Sunday soccer coach, or
at basketball or tennis club.

This was all
manipulative grooming for the abuse which was to
follow.

Another factor
he said was the way he left the victims feeling degraded, and
mentioned the fact he said he was part of the Kenneally family and
that he would never be believed.

He said
Polaroid did not have to be processed by a third party and were
some sort of insurance against disclosure.

Another factor
he said was the persistence of the abuse, over many years, a
complete lack of a moral compass.

A fifth factor
is the number of victims involved, number may have been double that
he told Gardaí, but the judge said he is only concerned with the 10
victims before the court.

A sixth factor
he said was the group participation of the boys, creating a
distorting perception which might be considered the
norm.

The use of
devices such as handcuffs is another factor he said.

He said some of
the victims were tied to trees and left for a time at nighttime.
What some of the victims disclose is certainly violence said the
judge.

And he said the
use of alcohol was another factor as it was used to facilitate the
abuse, with Keneally never drinking himself.

The payment of
money was another aggravating factor he said, with substantial
amounts of money being given to the boys, which was
bribery.

Maximum
sentence of two years on each count is warranted, said Judge
O'Kelly.